1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gaming machine capable of awarding a payout based on the number of games played and a gaming method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
An example of conventional gaming machines is a slot machine. A slot machine displays scrolling plural symbols on a display on the front of the cabinet when a player inserts a game value such as a coin and a bill or when an input is made to a spin button, and then stops the scroll of the symbols. In a slot machine having such a configuration, as disclosed in the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 6,604,999B2, the specification of U.S. patent publication No. 2002065124A1, or the specification of U.S. patent publication No. 20040053676A1, for example, a predetermined amount of game values is paid out when symbols stopped on a winning line correspond to a predetermined combination.
As such, a player playing a slot machine runs a game after betting a desirable amount of game value. When the game results in a win, the player receives a payout corresponding to the amount of betted game value. When the game results in a lose, the player loses the betted game value.
After repeating the game play many times, a payout rate becomes more or less constant no matter whether the scrolling symbols are stopped when the stop button is pressed or the scrolling symbols are automatically stopped at a random timing. The payout rate indicates a ratio between an accumulated value of game value payout having been obtained as a result of previous winnings and game values inserted into the insertion slot of the slot machine before the start of each game. The payout rate is determined in advance in the slot machine. Therefore, in general, the probability of a winning which provides a large amount of game values as a payout despite the single winning or a winning which triggers a special game (bonus game) having higher probability of winning is set so that such a winning occurs once every 100 games or so, for example, in consideration of its payout rate.
However, since the occurrence frequency of the above-described winning is determined as a probability, actually, these types of winning may occur twice while playing 100 games, or may not occur even if 200 or 300 games are played. When no winning is achieved after playing a lot of games, the player keeps losing the game values and hence he/she may lose interest in continuing the games.
Examples of the above-described slot machine are recited in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,178,390, 5,820,459, 6,695,697, 6,254,483, 5,611,730, 5,639,088, 6,257,981, 6,234,896, 6,001,016, 6,273,820, 6,224,482, 4,669,731, 6,244,957, 5,910,048, 5,695,402, 6,003,013, 4,283,709, 4,964,638, 6,089,980, 5,280,909, 5,702,303, 6,270,409, 5,770,533, 5,836,817, 6,932,704, 6,932,707, 4,837,728, 4,624,459, 5,564,700, 5,890,963, U.S. Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2003/0069073, European Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 1192975, European Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 1302914, European Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 1544811, European Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 1477947, European Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 1351180, European Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 0631798, German Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 4137010, German Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 3712841, German Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 3242890, German Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10049444, British Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2326830, WO2004/095383, WO03/083795, WO2007/026396, WO2007/026401, WO2007/026400, WO2007/026406, WO2007/026399, WO2007/026407, WO2007/026402, WO2007/026403, and WO2007/026404. The slot machines disclosed in these documents have a rescue function with which a payout or bonus is awarded in response to a predetermined number of games or lost number of games.
As described above, it has been desirable for gaming machines to have various rescue functions to keep the players not to lose expectation on payout and bonus.
An object of the present invention is to provide a gaming machine which keeps the player motivated for playing games by providing an expectation of payout to the player based on the number of games played, and a playing method thereof.